Of Mortgage Moms, Security Moms, and Tuition Teens

Editor’s Note: Here we go again with pollsters trying to categorize us. But now we have the forum to knock them down. Good post, Nancy. -Elisa

With the November election growing ever closer, the pundits are busy classifying us mothers into categories.

The newest label is “mortgage mom.” These are moms whose “sense of well-being is freighted with anxiety about their families’ financial squeeze,” as described by The Washington Post. It seems that the “security moms”–moms worried about the threat of terrorism–who helped bring the GOP victory in 2004–may be morphing into these “mortgage moms” who are more concerned about making ends meet. I wrote more about this here and here.

Now there is a cartoon from the Boston Globe‘s Dan Wasserman that says it all better than I did anywhere:

So what do you think will happen come November? Have security moms mutated into mortgage moms? Will they make a difference in hotly contested races? I know that if I were to label myself I wouldn’t call myself a “mortgage mom.” More like a “messy,” “frazzled,” or “tired” mom. But I don’t think that’s catchy enough for a pollster.